Game Hire at Cheltenham Racecourse, Gloucestershire

Cheltenham Racecourse takes some filling. If you've booked The Centaur for an exhibition, or one of the suites for a conference or awards evening, there's usually a stretch of the day when your attendees aren't in a session and need somewhere to go. That's the part we help with. Fun Pro supplies interactive games, arcade machines and event entertainment into events taking place at the racecourse. We don't hire out the venue itself; that's handled by the racecourse's own events team. What we do is deliver the entertainment, set it up, run it and take it away again.

We've been supplying corporate events across the UK since 2009, and we're based in Coventry, around 60 miles up the A46 and M5. Cheltenham is one of the Gloucestershire venues we visit most often, and it's a straightforward run down for our team.

About Cheltenham Racecourse as an Events Venue

The racecourse sits on Evesham Road in Prestbury, about five minutes' drive from Cheltenham town centre and just off junction 11 of the M5. Cheltenham Spa is the nearest station, and Birmingham and Bristol airports are both within an hour or so.

For event planners, the useful numbers are these: 17 distinct spaces, around 2,600 square metres of indoor space, and 360 acres outdoors. Events run from a meeting for two in a private box up to 2,250 attendees theatre-style in a single room. There's on-site car parking, free for most dates, which makes a difference when you're bringing a large group in.

The racecourse also runs 16 racedays a year, including the Cheltenham Festival in March and the November Meeting, so the events calendar works around a busy racing programme. Venue bookings are made directly with the racecourse events team.

Spaces at Cheltenham Racecourse and the Games That Suit Them

The right game depends as much on the room as on the occasion. Once your space is confirmed, we can suggest options that fit the footprint and the mood.

The Centaur

At around 2,600 square metres, The Centaur is the big one: 2,250 theatre-style, 800 for a seated dinner, and up to 3,000 at maximum capacity. It's built for exhibitions and large-scale events, which means competition for attention is real. Footfall games earn their keep here. Grab A Grand cash cubes, the Prize Crane and Batak Pro all stop people mid-walk, and most can carry your branding. Our exhibition game hire page covers how these work for lead capture.

Hall of Fame, Gold Cup and Festival Suite

The Hall of Fame holds up to 500 for receptions and exhibitions, with six decades of racing history displayed overhead.

The Gold Cup, which sits just off it and combines two connected rooms, takes 400 for a drinks reception or 260 for a seated dinner.

Festival Suite handles 120 for dinner or 250 for a reception. These are your awards evening and celebration spaces, and they suit entertainment people gather around rather than queue for: photo booths and magic mirrors, retro arcade machines and prize wheels all work well as reception entertainment.

Panoramic Suite, Insurance, Istabraq, Sovereign and Crest

This is the middle tier, and there's plenty of it. The Panoramic Suite seats 300 for dinner with views over Cleeve Hill. Insurance takes 250 for a reception or 200 theatre-style. Istabraq sits above the Centaur foyer with a balcony and fitted bar, holding up to 450 for a drinks reception.

Sovereign and Crest connect to make a larger room, with Crest seating 60 on its own. Floor space here is more measured, so compact games make sense: shuffleboard, the Batak Lite, Plinko and prize wheels sit comfortably without dominating.

Private Boxes and Outdoor Spaces

The private boxes seat up to 16 boardroom-style and each has a balcony, which makes them better suited to meetings than games. If you're using boxes for breakouts, it's usually worth putting the entertainment in a shared space nearby instead. Outdoors, Quevega and the See You Then terrace both sit above the parade ring, and the Vestey Bar in the Princess Royal Stand is set up for indoor and outdoor combinations. Fun fair stalls like hook-a-duck work nicely outdoors if there's shelter, though most of our equipment is built for indoor use. Talk to us early about outdoor plans and we'll steer you sensibly.

What Fun Pro Handles, and What We Don't

Here's how our service fits around your racecourse booking.

What we handle:

• Delivering the games to the racecourse on your event date and getting them into the space you've booked
• Setting up, testing and safety-checking everything before your attendees arrive
• Staffing the games through the event, with our own team on site for the duration as standard
• Collecting everything at the agreed time afterwards

What we don't handle:

• Venue hire, room allocation or floor plans, all of which sit with the racecourse events team
• Catering, bar service, AV, staging or décor
• Day delegate packages or accommodation
• Overnight equipment storage between multi-day events, unless it's pre-arranged

If the venue isn't booked yet, the racecourse team is your first call. Once your space is confirmed, come back to us.

Planning Interactive Entertainment for a Cheltenham Racecourse Event

A few things are worth sorting early. Sharing your floor plan is the most useful one, since it lets us advise on which games fit, where the power points sit and how to keep walkways clear.

The racecourse asks external suppliers for a copy of their public liability insurance, which we send across as standard. It's also worth knowing that the racecourse charges for setting up ahead of your event date, and that equipment can sometimes be left overnight when it's pre-arranged with your event manager. Both are worth raising with them early, because they affect how we schedule delivery.

The racing calendar matters too. With 16 racedays a year plus the Festival in March, access windows can be tighter than you'd expect, and there are road closures around Evesham Road during the November Meeting. Your event manager will confirm what's possible, and we'll work to whatever they set.

On lead times, four to six weeks gives you the best choice of games during busy periods, including the Christmas party season. Simpler bookings can often be arranged with around two weeks' notice. If you'd like games branded with your logo, mention it at the quoting stage, as our in-house design and print work needs a little longer.

It's also worth thinking about the mix of people attending. A range of options, with a couple of gentler choices alongside the more energetic ones, means nobody sits it out.

Getting Games Delivered to Cheltenham Racecourse

We're based in Coventry, roughly 60 miles away via the A46 and M5 to junction 11. Delivery, setup and collection are all included in your quote, so there's nothing extra to budget for on logistics.

On the day, we'll coordinate arrival and access with the racecourse based on your space and timings. Parking on site is generous, which makes unloading more straightforward than at a lot of city venues. For larger exhibitions in The Centaur, we tend to arrive earlier so the stand layout has time to settle.

If you'd like a sense of how this works in practice, our testimonials page has feedback from corporate clients around the UK, and our safety and insurance page covers our public liability cover and PAT testing.